That's the longest consecutive reprieve Alicia Memrie Michelle Jacquez, 13, has gotten from the consuming grand mal seizures she's had since she was just shy of one year old.

Jacquez's last of three consecutive brain surgeries to remedy the painful seizures was Oct. 15 and her mother, Marisella, said the teen is improving every day.

"She's doing great; she has a lot more energy than before and can stay awake all day," Marisella Jacquez said. "She's still on medication because the brain is very irritated after the surgery, and she uses oxygen when she sleeps, but there's been nothing out of what they told us to expect."

During her first epileptic episode, Alicia had 15 grand mal seizures (which affect the entire brain) back-to-back, recalled her mother.
"It was frustrating. I don't think we knew they were seizures before," said Alicia's grandmother, Priscilla Garcia, of Las Cruces. "She was a baby when they started and her grandfather (Frank Garcia) was the one who dragged her everywhere to the doctor's appointments. It was hard, because we didn't know if we were going to lose her."

After running the gamut of possible explanations for the episodes, and multiple bouts of medication and misdiagnoses, the Jacquez family uprooted from their Las Cruces home when Alicia was a little over 2 years old, moving to Tomé — 25 miles south of Albuquerque — to be closer to the University of New Mexico Medical Center in search of answers.

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Equipped with a mind imaging center in the facility, doctors at the UNM hospital found Alicia's hippocampus — located in the left back side of the brain — was damaged, which they assumed was the cause of the intense and complex partial seizures the girl had been experiencing her entire life.

The hippocampus is a limbic system structure that is important in forming new memories and connecting emotions and senses, such as smell and sound, to memories.

"She had been suffering the entire time, and it was always dismissed as a fit," Marisella Jacquez said. "When you have doctors telling you that you have an upset child, you begin to believe that."

After a series of tests spanning a few months uncovered two damaged areas in Alicia's brain, the Jacquez family was told the girl would be a candidate for brain surgery that would help get the seizures under control.

Jacquez said this is the first time UNM doctors performed this type of procedure on a child.

"Maybe there's another little girl out there and they can find out when she's 1 and not 12," Alicia told her mother prior to the surgery.

Success and support

So far, the surgeries have been successful, with minimal side effects.

Marisella Jacquez said her daughter still experiences the feeling that develops in the pit of her stomach denoting an oncoming seizure, but the gripping wave dissipates in about 30 seconds and is no longer followed by the token seizure she's come to expect.

"Since the last surgery, she's been doing really well," Alicia's grandmother said. "I think she's experiencing anxiety sometimes because he body is so used to the seizures. She's really positve and she's aware there's a difference. She's very excited about that."

Marisella Jacquez said the girl's grandparents played a large part during her surgeries, taking her to doctor's appointments, remaining by her side during surgery and keeping in contact with her every day since.

The Garcias make up just a small piece of the web of support that formed around Alicia.

"There are a lot of people from up north where she lives who have been so sweet and good to her, and constantly encourage her to keep on," Garcia said. "It motivates you. I don't know how long the process is going to take, but it's nice to know there is that kind of support."

Garcia said the Las Cruces community, both family and strangers, also provided unwavering and welcome support.

"Las Cruces overwhelmed us with their generosity," Jacquez said. "Project Linus (a local non-profit organization) donated a pink blanket to her and she carried it with her everywhere. It was always on her hospital bed after surgery."

"It makes you feel there are good people in the world, there are people who care," said Garcia, including her own daughter.

"She researches everything," Garcia said of Marisella Jacquez. "She went to town researching all of it. I was pretty proud; that's a good mom."

The road ahead

It will be a hard-fought battle to return completely to normalcy, but Alicia is adjusting more every day.

At her recent 13th birthday party, held around Thanksgiving in Las Cruces, Jacquez said Alicia was able to stay up with her family.

"Everybody looks at her and can see her interacting and laughing, and they're just amazed," Jacquez said. "Las Cruces was so wonderful to us and it was so wonderful to go home."

Jacquez said this has been a learning process for Alicia, as well as the rest of their family, including Alicia's father Pablo, older sister Priscilla, older brother Dominic and younger brother, Pablo Jr.

"We feel like we can't say no to anything anymore because it all seems so little compared to what she's been through. She's made everyone that much stronger, and more positive and more optimistic, and has taught us not to sweat the little material things as much as we do. We're so blessed."

Next on the agenda: returning to school. After missing so much school during testing and surgery, Alicia will be reevaluated in January to determine if she is ready to get back in the swing of things, or at least be able to take online classes from her home.

"She has done really, really good. She's definitely a teenager now, and she's going to make sure she's a healthy one," Jacquez said.
Matlin Smith can be reached at 575-541-5468; follow her on Twitter @msmith_lcsun.

How you can help

To make a donation, go to any Wells Fargo Bank and ask for the Alicia M. Jacquez account, under the name Frank Garcia, number 6735773241. You can also contribute electronically through a Paypal account under the e-mail frank@aol.com.